Kelly Bailey
Kelly Bailey, is a fictional character in the television series, Misfits, she is portrayed by Lauren Socha. Biography Before Community Service Kelly and her boyfriend go clubbing one evening, with Kelly drinking quite heavily until she is unable to move. She bumps into Curtis, who sits her down on a stairwell where she vomits on his shoes, asks for kiss and eventually passes out. She is also seen by Simon, who discreetly and briefly looks up her skirt. She is later escorted by her boyfriend into the parking lot, where they break into Tony's car. Moments later, she is proposed to and drunkenly accepts before driving away. Another day, Kelly encounters Jodie, presumably a rival, and assaults her after an argument. Kelly is later charged and ordered to do community service as punishment. Series 1 Initially, Kelly does not get on with the other members due to her stereotypical chav speech. However, after the storm arrives, Kelly is the first to discover her power of telepathy; she involuntarily hears the thoughts of her pet dog, then later that evening those of her fiancée, the latter resulting in the two breaking up. The next day, after removing the newly-made vandalism on the community centre, Kelly storms off from the group after another row and encounters Tony. Kelly headbutts him when he stops her from leaving, sending him into a state of murderous rage and causing him to chase her into the community centre. Kelly warns the others, but Tony manages to break inside, and after a struggle, Kelly hits Tony over the head with a paint can and beats him to death. The group decide to bury his body, along with deceased offender Gary, under the flyover that night. Later, Kelly and the others are ordered to help out at an evening event for the elderly. One day, Kelly notices Nathan fleeing from one of the elderly women (Ruth), and after finding him later learns that he had slept with her previously while in her younger form. Kelly also picks up Nathan's thoughts ("Don't think about shagging her!"), which gradually irritates her less over the length of time spent with the group. Kelly soon learns that Nathan is living in the community centre, having been kicked out of his mother's house, but does not tell the group. Later, Kelly is forced to face Jodie and work through their problems, but instead ends up headbutting her again; the next morning, Kelly discovers that all her hair has fallen out and turns up for community service with a wig and cap. Her cover is blown, however, when Nathan jokingly tries to remove the cap, causing an embarrassed Kelly to flee. Kelly later sees Jodie and discovers that she too is bald, brought on by alopecia following her father walking out on the family. The two then reconcile. When Nathan takes baby Finn to the roof of the community centre, Kelly's telepathy reveals that the baby is using his power to make Nathan adopt him, and manages to resolve the issue by telling Finn's mother to take him to his real father. Later that day, out of sympathy, Kelly invites Nathan over for dinner. Later, Kelly and the group witness the Virtue group arrive in town, and suspect something is wrong when Alisha arrives for community service one morning dressed neatly and presentable. In a short amount of time, it is up to Kelly, Nathan and Simon to stop Rachel from brainwashing every adolescent in the country. However, Kelly is kidnapped and brainwashed into joining the group. She soon breaks free from Rachel's control when Nathan is killed after falling from the roof of the community centre. At Nathan's funeral, Kelly places his iPod in his coffin before he is buried. That night, Simon gives Kelly a DVD he made, featuring video clips of Nathan. Series 2 Weeks after the funeral, the group return to community service under the supervision of Shaun, Sally's replacement. While litter picking, Kelly is hit with a paper airplane with a message telling her to visit Nathan's grave. After waiting for a while, Kelly soon hears Nathan's thoughts as he masturbates in his coffin, and the group quickly exhume him. The next day, the group are told to supervise a day visit from patients at a psychiatric ward, including Lucy. It is then that the group's friendships are put to the test when Lucy uses her shapeshifting power to turn them against each other, during which Nathan is killed for a second time. Kelly stays behind at the community centre that night to wait for Nathan to reanimate. Later, Kelly and the others are introduced to Nathan's estranged half-brother Jamie, and the group take him clubbing along with Lily. Jamie gives drugs to the group, which inadvertantly cause their powers to reverse; while clubbing with Nathan; Kelly constantly blurts out everything she is thinking, including wondering why Nathan takes a liking to her compared to notably more attractive women. Days later, the group break into what they believe to be the lair of Super Hoodie, only to find a woman named Nikki lives there instead. Later, Kelly decides to get a tattoo touched up and takes Nathan and Simon with her. However, when Nathan starts acting odd and lusts over Simon, Kelly visits Vince and learns that he has a power; unfortunately, she is inked before she can react, and her tattoo makes her fall madly in love with him. She breaks free from Vince's power when Simon flicks a peanut into Vince's mouth, giving him an allergic reaction and exchanges his medicine for their release. That night, Kelly and Nathan decide to have sex, but as Nathan inserts his fingers into her vagina, Kelly backs out, saying that it feels 'wrong' and that they should just remain friends, much to Nathan's lament. One morning, they are greeted with new offender Ollie, who reveals he has the power of teleportation. While litter picking, the group encounter Tim, whose power leaves him seeing reality as a video game, and are constantly hounded by him. Mistaken for his ex-fiancé, Kelly is kidnapped and a ransom is given to the group for her freedom, however the group find themselves suspended in an abandoned warehouse. Nikki, who has recently undergone a heart transplant surgery with Ollie's heart, uses her inherited teleportation power to rescue them. When Simon tells Kelly that Tim has been arrested the next day, Kelly assumes that all he did was play computer games all day. In the sixth episode of Season 2, Kelly was killed by another character who was affected by the storm and had gained the ability to manipulate dairy products, her death prompting Nathan to go after her killer in a rage after he saw her spirit. This is however reversed when Curtis rewinds time to cancel out all events which have taken place during this episode. In the Christmas Special, having finished Community Service Kelly sells her power along with the rest of the gang to Seth, the power dealer. Though she first enjoys her wealth, buying expensive clothing, she then opts to buy them back after Nikki dies at the hands of one of Elliot's followers, a corrupt a former preist who bought powers so he could convince people he's Jesus Christ to obtain money and sex. Kelly joins her fellow misfits in the attempt to kill the fake Jesus. Having found their efforts useless against Elliot's power, the misfits attempted to steal his locker full of money which ends up killing Elliot in the struggle. When returning to Elliot to buy back their powers with Elliot's stolen money, Kelly suggests that they don't necessarily need to buy the powers they where given during the storm. She was the first to obtain her new power. Series 3 With her new knowledge of rocket science, Kelly attempted to sell her rocket designs of an intercontinental ballistics missile to a potential investor, however, the investor kicked her out, believing she stole them. Kelly soon developed a romantic interest in Seth and the two began dating but briefly broke up when Seth dumped her for his newly resurrected girlfriend Shannon. Kelly reacted badly but that didn't stop her from warning him of his current girlfriend's condition as a zombie. Unsuccessful, Kelly encountered Shannon while killing zombie cheerleaders. Shannon, jealous of Kelly and Seth's bond, attempted to kill Kelly and turn her into a zombie. Seth however, killed Shannon after confirming his love for Kelly. Even though together again, Kelly and Seth argued as she wanted she wanted him to stop dealing powers due to the danger it could cause. They eventually make up and plan to go to Morocco. After Alisha's death, Kelly seduced James to get him to a secluded area where Simon can get his power of Time Travel. After Simon goes back in time to make Alisha fall in love with him, Kelly stands above the community centre building alongside Curtis and new misfist Rudy where she processes that they will never see Simon or Alisha again and claiming their eternal love cycle is "dead romantic". Alternate Timelines In the first episode, Kelly is initially killed by Tony when the group do not believe her about him threatening to kill them; her death is undone when Curtis inadvertently uses his power to turn back time and stops him from entering. In Episode 1.4, Curtis uses his power to go back in time and prevent himself and Samantha from being arrested, meaning that he was not there to stop Tony from killing Kelly and the others. A memorial is placed outside the community centre for her, Simon, Alisha and Gary, while Nathan survived. Characterization Kelly, initially, is portrayed as simply a stereotypical chav, given community service for getting into a fight at an Argos store. : "Don't act like you know me, cos you don't." — Kelly. She is aggressive but worries about what others think of her; it was she who killed the rampaging Tony — albeit in self-defence — and instigated the Argos fight after a girl called her a "slag". However she is also shown to have a sensitive side, showing concern for the other members of the group and being genuinely hurt by her fiancé leaving her. A tentative relationship develops after Kelly reaches out to Nathan, and the pair may be falling in love. Of the group, she is the most affected by Nathan's apparent death. Special Power Telepathy The first to find out her power, Kelly discovered that she has telepathy. She hears the thoughts of others, including her dog and an infant. She can now hear what people think of her. Stereotypical first impressions aside, Kelly also has to deal with hearing people’s thoughts in the most intimate of moments. As well as the secrets those around her would rather keep hidden. With her telepathic ability, a habit of speaking before thinking results in exposing many of her fellow Misfits' secrets. Kelly sold her ability of telepathy to Seth. She later is seen buying another power. Truth-Telling When she took drugs at a party, Kelly's power was reversed. Instead of hearing other people's thoughts, she said any thought that came into her mind without her being able to control herself. Technopathy In Series 3, Kelly has gained the power of technopathy, though thus far she can seemingly only use it to design missiles and rockets, making her a literal Rocket Scientist, much to her own annoyance. This power seems difficult to control, as Kelly has remarked on her desire for a "handbook" to it. Her new power, however, has come in quite useful in some cases, as she has used it to fix Seth's car engine and turn off an alarm when breaking into Peter's flat. Time Reversal In an alternate reality Kelly was given the ability of Time Reversal by Seth and used it to go back in time and stop Hitler from taking Friedrich's mobile phone and winning World War II. This meant when she returned to the current timeline she retained the memories and ability with no indication of retaining or having any other ability. She later returned the power to Seth, and sworn him that he won't give this power to anyone and regaining her ability of technopathy. Unlike when Curtis used this power, Kelly's control of it was similar to Friedrich's. Telepathic perception1.png|Kelly's original ability of Telepathy Kelly truth.jpg|Kelly's former reversed ability of Thought Verbalisation (Inverse of Telepathy) Time reversal.jpg|Kelly's brief ability of Time Reversal Vlcsnap-2011-10-31-11h42m27s184.png|Kelly's current ability of Technopathy Casting and character creation Casting for the part was announced on 17 August 2009 by Digital Spy. On the part Socha said Kelly was "brilliant" before adding "I love her. I love playing the part". Socha later added "I do like playing Kelly - she's a bit outgoing and says it how it is, when I was younger I was a bit like her, a bit chavvy" before adding that she thought the character was "likeable, isn't she?" Fellow cast member Iwan Rheon revealed that Overman who created the character discussed how to write their parts with the cast and later began writing for them as actors. Socha said she and her co-stars always "knew it was going to be a bit of a success" but underestimated how much of a sucess it would be until the show won a BAFTA. Reception Socha was nominated for a BAFTA at the 2011 ceremony in the "Best Supporting Actress" category for her portrayal of Kelly which she won over Gillian Anderson, Lynda Baron and Jessie Wallace. Socha was nominated for Outstanding Actress in the fiction category at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in 2011. Tim Dowling of The Guardian described her as the "chavvy one" of the group of "foul-mouthed young criminals". Boxcutters commented negatively on the characters of Misfits saying it was "filled with unattractive and very annoying characters" although they responded positively to the show asking "why do we find it so strangely compelling?" Neela Debnath of The Independent commented on Kelly's new power saying she felt it "does not make sense" that her power "has not elevated her intelligence to the levels of MENSA" and while Kelly can "draw complex blueprints for rockets" it was odd that "she does not know what brunch is". Debnath added that "maybe her power will serve a purpose eventually". Debnath later added that Socha fulfilled the "weightier role" when needed. She added that "Socha is on fine form, she has been since the start of the programme, however this series will be hers in which to shine; after all, it is Kelly who saved the day and stopped Hitler". Debnath later added that Socha had the "chance to stand out" but that she felt Socha's acting "fell short and she did not manage to convincingly portray Jen". Despite this Debnath felt that there is "no doubt about Socha’s ability as an actress" but that in the episode "her acting potential remained unrealised, it felt very much like Kelly was there and that Jen had not taken over". Debnath added that "there have been glimpses of Socha’s versatility in this series with her new power, as well as in the first series when she was indoctrinated by the Virtue cult, but it just did not come out here. Socha is capable of so much more but if she is not careful she could end up being typecast as the hard-nosed girl from the troubled background". Debnath commented that Socha is "superb" at portraying Kelly. On Kelly's relationship with Seth Debnath said it was "satisfying" adding that the pair have "an underplayed chemistry which works because both of them are guarded characters, neither of whom wants to lose face". She added that "It was nice to see Kelly’s love life resuscitated after her disappointing ‘like-a-cousin’ moment with Nathan and her fleeting romance with Bruno, the escaped monkey who turned into a human but ended up getting shot". The Guardian commented on Kelly saying she has been "once more been a wonderful character to watch" adding that a highlight was her "trying to convince an official of her new superpower that gives her the ability to design inter-continental ballistic missiles ("Yeah mate, check out the propulsion system. It's liquid nitrogen – it's wicked")". Trivia *To date, Kelly, Simon and Curtis are the only Misfits to have had more than 2 powers, not counting Nathan's dual ability of Immortality and Mediumship or inverse powers. Kelly has had Telepathy, Technopathy and Time Reversal. **Kelly and Curtis are also the only Misfits to have shared the same power but at different times, Time Reversal. However, Simon had a similar power to this, Time Travel. *Kelly's original power reflected the fact that she is very self concious and always worried about people judging her for being a chav. *Kelly's number is 07415651663 (as seen in Episode 6 (Series 3), however, this is identical to Alisha's. Category:Main Characters Category:Characters Category:Community Service Workers Category:Main Characters Category:Characters Category:Community Service Workers Category:Main Characters Category:Characters Category:Community Service Workers Category:Main Characters Category:Characters Category:Community Service Workers Category:Power Buyers Category:Power Buyers